The present invention relates to a spinning reel for fishing, and, in particular, to a switch-over mechanism capable of switching over a spool between a drag operation state and a freely rotatable state, which is installed in the spinning reel.
A drag mechanism for a spinning reel for fishing is generally structured such that a drag force can be controlled gradually by rotating a drag control knob. However, an actual fishing requires various kinds of operations: for example, an operation for switching over a spool from the drag operative state to the freely rotatable state while maintaining a state where the reverse rotation of a rotor is prevented with a rotor reversal preventive device, an operation for switching the spool over to the drag operative state immediately after fish is caught in a state that the spool is held in the freely rotatable state, and so on, in order to prevent a fishline from being cut, to prevent the mouth of fish caught from being damaged or cut away, and to facilitate deep biting of fish. In order to be able to deal with the above fishing operations, an arrangement in which a drag mechanism can be switched over between the drag operative state and the spool freely rotatable state is proposed, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publications Sho. 61-274638, Hei. 2-405 and the like.
Further, the actual fishing requires so-called rotor reversible fishing operation: That is, the reverse rotation preventive state of the reversal preventive device is released to set for the rotor a forwardly and reversely rotatable state that the rotor can be rotated forwardly or reversely by rotating a handle to play out or take up the fishline. This rotor reversible fishing operation is usable, for instance, in such a situate that an angler wishes to move the position of the terminal tackles closer or further when he awaits the biting of the fish awaited with the spool held in the spool freely rotatable state.
However, in order to perform the rotor reversible fishing operation, the prevention of the reverse rotation of the rotor by the rotor reversal preventive device must be released each time and at the same time the spool must be switched into the secured state. Similarly, in order to switch the rotor reversible fishing state over to the spool freely rotatable state, the rotor reversal preventive device must be switched over to the rotor reversal preventive state as well as the switch-over mechanism must be switched from the secured state to the freely rotatable state. If the angler forgets this necessary switch-over operation, then the spool and rotor will be rotated together, so that the fishline may be slacked off or the fishline cannot be played out smoothly.